Cancer remains a major cause of mortality worldwide, with nearly 10 million deaths per year. In Senegal, it constitutes a priority public health issue, prompting the authorities to adopt a strategy aligned on the recommendations of the WHO and the national policies for health development. In the absence of a functional national register, Senegal has set up a cancer register based on the International Classification of Diseases in Oncology (CIM-O). After a first collection interrupted in 2015 due to lack of funding, the register was reactivated in 2022, allowing a resumption of data collection in 18 health facilities. In this context, 13 registrars were recruited and trained in 2023, and training sessions were organised to improve data registration and initiate a retrospective collection over the period 2015-2024. This collection, carried out between December 2024 and March 2025, aims to refine epidemiological trends and guide cancer control strategies. A data pre-validation meeting is scheduled for 27 March 2025 in Dakar. It will make it possible to share the results of the collection, to identify the challenges for the perpetuation of the register and to formulate recommendations to improve the quality of the data.
The cancer registry in Senegal: an essential tool for an epidemiological and strategic fight
